Dec 7 2011
"Fake or poor quality malaria drugs are boosting resistance in parts of southeast Asia, a problem that is likely to worsen unless tighter regulations are adopted, U.S. experts said Monday" at a hearing of the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health, and Human Rights, Agence France-Presse reports. "'Drug resistance to the most effective drug available, artemisinin-based combination therapy, is developing and has been recognized in southeast Asia,'" Regina Rabinovich, director of infectious diseases at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, said, according to the news service.
"'Resistance is being noticed on the Thai, Cambodian, Burmese borders and resistance is likely to increase,'" Roger Bate of the American Enterprise Institute said, AFP notes. "In addition to tougher regulations, researchers need to focus on developing new drugs against malaria, and consider making sure they cannot be sold or distributed as mono-therapies, the panelists urged," according to the news service (Sheridan, 12/5).
This article was reprinted from kaiserhealthnews.org with permission from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. Kaiser Health News, an editorially independent news service, is a program of the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonpartisan health care policy research organization unaffiliated with Kaiser Permanente. |